Today, President Muhammadu Buhari will leave for the United States (US) on a four-day official visit. This is apparently in honour of President Obama's invitation to host our president on July 20. This visit is expected to infuse a new verve into the relationship between the two countries after the frost that shrouded that relationship during the Goodluck Jonathan administration.
Interestingly, the government has given insight into what the president might discuss with his American counterpart during his visit. Exchanges between Buhari and Obama will focus on security, war against terrorism, as well as trade and economic relations. In pursuit of these issues, the president and his entourage will interface with US state actors, namely, President Obama, Vice-president Joe Biden, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Martin Dempsey and the Deputy Secretary of Defence, Robert Work. Other actors and agency that Buhari will meet are the US Attorney-General, Loretta Lynch, the US Secretary of Treasury, Jack Lew, the US Secretary of Commerce, Penny Pritzker, the US Trade representative, Michael Froman, John Kerry, the United States Secretary of State, the US Senate, Congressional Committees on Foreign Relations and the Black Caucus of the US House of Representatives. This horde of US state actors indicates possible direction of the conversation between the two countries.
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